1960
January: John F Kennedyannounces that he is standing for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.Richard M Nixon announces that he is a candidate for the Republican Party's presidential nomination.
February: Sit-in protests against segregated lunch counters in Greensboro, North Carolina.
May: An American U-2 spy-plane is shot down over the USSR, its pilot Gary Powers is captured.
Despite the opposition of a number of Southern Senators, Congress passes civil rights legislation to fight discrimination against black voters.
July: Kennedy wins Democratic presidential nomination at the party's National Convention in Los Angeles.
September: First of a series of televised debates between Kennedy and Nixon.
October: Three more debates between the two presidential candidates are broadcast.
November: John F Kennedy elected 35th president of the USA

1962February: Gary Powers released by Soviet Union. John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the Earth. Kennedy meets the Mayor of West Berlin, Willy Brandt.
March: Kennedy announces plans for the resumption of US atmospheric nuclear tests.
May: Kennedy sends American forces to help combat communist gains in Laos.
June: Kennedy travels to Mexico.
July: Telstar communications satellite launched.
September: Serious rioting breaks out when James Meredith becomes the first non-white student to enrol in the University of Mississippi.
October: Trade Expansion Act signed by Kennedy. US spy planes discover Soviet missile sites on Cuba. Kennedy orders naval blockade of Cuba; Soviet ships withdraw after US agrees not to attack Cuba.
November: US lifts naval quarantine of Cuba.
December: Kennedy and Macmillan meet in the Bahamas.

1963April: Martin Luther King arrested in Birmingham, Alabama.
June: Idea of a 'hot line' between the White House and the Kremlin agreed upon. Kennedy visits Germany, Britain, Ireland and Italy.
August: US, USSR and UK agree to a nuclear test ban treaty. Martin Luther King leads civil rights march on Washington. American-Soviet 'hot line' established.
September: 4 children killed when a bomb explodes in a Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama; in the ensuing riots two further civil rights protesters are killed.
October: US Senate ratifies test ban treaty.
November: South Vietnamese generals seize power, President Diem killed. Kennedy assassinated in Dallas, Texas; Lyndon Johnson is sworn in as President. Lee Harvey Oswald, Kennedy's alleged assassin, is shot by Jack Ruby. Kennedy buried in Arlington National Cemetery. President Johnson establishes the Warren Commission to investigate Kennedy's assassination.